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Cuomo Says He Makes History, Then Repeats It

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany last month. Mr. Cuomo analyzes past and present goings-on in Albany and offers commentary on his own administration, often in glowing terms.Credit
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

How can New Yorkers know for sure? Mr. Cuomo says so — and has almost every week since he took office 16 months ago.

On his fifth day in office, he challenged lawmakers to “write a new page in the history book of New York State government,” and his administration has done just that more than 80 times, judging by the number of press releases issued by his office that described one of the governor’s actions as historic.

Sometimes the accomplishments seemed destined for some history books, like the legalization of same-sex marriage. But the governor has called a loan program for energy-efficient home improvements historic, as well as the creation of a new application process for economic development grants. The establishment of a Medicaid spending commission? That was historic, too.

“There’s that word again,” one Albany reporter, Liz Benjamin of the YNN cable network, noted as she live-blogged a news conference last year. And a Democratic state senator, Rubén Díaz Sr. of the Bronx, mocked the construct as he complained that the governor had staged a signing of the state budget for the news media before the Legislature had finished voting on it last month.

“Can you imagine: this was history in the making to sign into Law a Budget that had not been approved by the legislature ... only in New York,” Mr. Díaz wrote. (In his missive, Mr. Díaz reached for the history books himself, declaring, “The whole situation only reminds me of when Rome was controlled by emperors.”)

An eager student of history and of politics, Mr. Cuomo enjoys analyzing the political footwork of Albany power brokers present and past, and he frequently offers play-by-play commentary on his own administration — at news conferences, on speaking tours, and in radio interviews, video recordings and news releases.

On New Year’s Day, his office sent an e-mail to New Yorkers with the subject: “A Look Back at a Historic Year.” In a book his office produced touting his first year’s accomplishments, something was described as “historic” or history-making every other page — 21 times over 39 pages.

In appearances around the state, Mr. Cuomo has cued a PowerPoint slide with the proclamation, “A historic year.”

“Last year’s legislative session will go down in the history books as one of the most successful legislative sessions in modern political history,” Mr. Cuomo told an audience on Long Island in February. He repeated a variation of that line in Plattsburgh the next day, and in case anyone was worried that he was exaggerating, he added, “Literally.”

Mr. Cuomo rarely needs a thesaurus. When lawmakers passed his budget last year, he championed the spending plan as “historic” and “transformational.” When they passed his budget this year, he declared it a “historic” moment that would spur a “major transformation” for the state.

“Politicians as a class seem to be more concerned than most of us about their place in history,” said Robert Lehrman, who was chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore and now teaches at American University. “This is a sort of thing with a long historical tradition — I think maybe Plutarch was the first to use the term, though he probably didn’t use it in English.”

Mr. Lehrman, who wrote speeches for Mr. Cuomo when he was an assistant federal housing secretary, said Mr. Cuomo’s use of “historic” probably indicated “some hapless assistant press secretary in his office has a tic like that.”

“Anyone who knows New York knows that New York makes history every day,” he said. Mr. Cuomo declined to be interviewed for this article , but at a news conference last year, after one of his aides described an overhaul of the state ethics laws as “historic,” the governor reflected on the characterization, saying, “It’s a word I think that’s often overused in Albany — ‘historic legislation.’ ” But that observation did not discourage him. He continued: “I think it’s actually justified today. This is a historic piece of legislation.”

Some say his frequent use of the word comes at the risk of ringing hollow.

“A rich person does not brag about it — only the nearly rich does,” said Elvin T. Lim, an associate professor of government at Wesleyan University and the author of “The Anti-Intellectual Presidency,” a critique of presidential oratory.

And Martin J. Medhurst, a professor of rhetoric and communication at Baylor University, advised caution.

“Not only does the term lose its power, but it undercuts the credibility of the person saying it,” he said. “When people start noticing it over and over, they attribute that to the speaker trying to puff himself up, and that hurts the ethos of a communicator.”

His frequent citation of his place in history, according to rhetoricians, provides a frame for how he hopes the public in New York and across the country will view him — as someone who turned a dysfunctional state capital from a place of corruption to competence.

George Lakoff, a professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, said Mr. Cuomo, oft-mentioned as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, is trying to project that “he realizes that the country has ‘historic’ challenges, and he has met them in New York and can meet them in the country.” “If he’s going to run for president,” Professor Lakoff said, “he can’t just be the so-so son of a great former governor. What he has to do is make his mark on his own.”

Mr. Cuomo’s history lessons began early — his father, Mario M. Cuomo, was a three-term governor renowned for his philosophical oratory. The elder Mr. Cuomo was himself fond of citing history, and at one point, assessing a decade in office, he wrote, “We have tried to advance, in all areas of our public life, New York’s historic governmental mission.”

These days, at the Executive Mansion, the younger Mr. Cuomo recites for guests a history of the sprawling home. At the Capitol, Mr. Cuomo ordered the portraits of his predecessors rehung, and installed new exhibits and a historical timeline in the building. He often alludes to the tenure of previous governors (not always in flattering ways) and he refers proudly to New York’s historic role in the women’s suffrage and workers’ rights movements.

“Be proud — you’re part of history,” Mr. Cuomo said was the message he hoped would be sent by calling attention to history in the Capitol’s halls. “And it’s true. And when you think of what you’re doing that way, through that lens, you know, it brings you to a different place.”

A version of this article appears in print on April 28, 2012, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Cuomo Says He Makes History, Then Repeats It. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe